


Wildfire

by Gravestar14



Series: Blights AU [3]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Epic conclusion music, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23724337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gravestar14/pseuds/Gravestar14
Summary: ~Part 3 Of Blights-AU, highly recommended that you read parts 1-2 for context~Calamity Ganon is dead. But Ganon itself is just rising.Hyrule must too rise, strong and united to defeat evil for the last time. And yet, that may be a problem. Because somebody killed someone’s friend. And someone may or may not have stabbed someone else. And the bad blood between Blight and Hylian, Sheika and Yiga, darkness and light has been steeping for a loooooong time.But maybe there’s something different too. Maybe everyone can get over themselves. And maybe, just maybe, Ganon shouldn’t have decided to show its true self today.It’s time for walls to crumble to ash, bitterness to burn to cinders, for Hyrule to be reborn one way or another. The Wildfire is coming.
Relationships: Prince Sidon/Pyro
Series: Blights AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1701388
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	1. How We Got Here Or Prologue

It started with the blights.  
Nine of them, from wind and water; fire and earth; jungle and leaf; thunder and light; frost of snow-capped mountains.   
It started with the blights, as they are now called. But it was a simpler time then, and they were simply… beings. Built pure of their respective elements, they were tasked with guarding the realms of Hyrule. Repelling the flames from the livable parts of Death Mountain. Warming the roads of Hebra for travellers. Ensuring the rains brought growth and not devastation. And so it was, for years upon years. The blights toiled. They grew. They thought. And they were lonely.   
You see, they toiled in the parts of the world that few brave souls dared travel. And those that did walked, staring into the heart of the thunderstorm, seeing a being straddling the clouds and responded how people often do: with fear. Children were warned not to travel to these remote locations. Those that did either died of the extreme elements- despite the blights best efforts otherwise- or looked upon these primordial creatures with glassy, terror-filled eyes. And so the blights learned very early on that no one- no one of this earth- would stand them.   
First, they turned to each other. Found that, deep within them, they held a connection. One that tethered them despite their physical distance. They learned to speak words to the wind in a language no one else could understand. They loved, they found, they built a family.   
For a while, that was enough. But a chance encounter with a man and a small glowing statue would mean all the difference. The blights grew indignant. Here was a statue (barely a presence in the world!) and they worshipped it. These people worshipped it. Without a thought for the spirits who endlessly made their cities calm and their skies clean and their streets safe. And with that thought came bitterness, bitterness that festered like an open wound and sat and burrowed its way into the minds of the blights, sitting there like some eternal rot as they toiled, toiled, toiled for people who’s only response to them was to petition Hylia to save them from ‘that hideous monster’.   
Ganon rose and Ganon fell, and the people of Hyrule rejoiced. Celebrated out on the streets. Thanked their dear goddess as the worst weather in a few thousand years ripped through the area and the blights exhausted themselves trying to keep the destruction from the parading streets. But Ganon, as we all well know, wasn’t truly gone. Merely slumbering, recovering from dire wounds. Waiting. Planning. Because Ganon is a devious creature, and the Calamity saw what the people of Hyrule had missed. When its voice had returned, it whispered to the blights. Placed ideas of revenge, of punishment in the creature’s heads. 

“So they did not respect you?” It would tell them, “Show them. Show them all that there are consequences.” 

And, as many ideas spoken to bitterness-diseased minds often do, it took root. Rather forcefully. And as Ganon awaited its glorious return, it watched as… one by one… the blights stopped. And saw what happened when they didn’t do their job. Drought hit Faron with the force of a gale wind. A settlement on the banks of the Zora River was erased from existence. Rito children weren’t allowed to fly for fear that the winds would destroy their newly fledged wings and toss them mercilessly into the yawning abyss below.   
Now this revelation was equal parts horrifying and satisfying. The people would see what scorning the blights would cost them. But the people would suffer. And the question became whether or not the blights were okay with that. Most that found themselves strangely welcoming of this new reality were ones whose existence centred around a major city. And who saw every day the people who hated them. 

Fire. Water. Wind. Thunder. 

One by one, each turned to Ganon as the Hylian people scorned the technological prowess that had let them defeat the Calamity. The sheika were hunted, they hid, they sacrificed their technology for a chance that they might be given mercy. Or (for those who made like the blights) turned on their oppressors and followed a new way. A Yiga way. And Ganon laughed, for it knew that- if they did not continue to evolve, if they even went backwards- it would win. Especially with its new allies.   
And the bitterness festered.   
Ganon rose, and the four wayward blights rose with it. Planned, experienced, ready for the technology that the Hylians had. Ganon decimated the castle. The blights decimated the Divine Beasts. And Hyrule fell.   
And the bitterness festered.  
It was the children who ran from burning buildings, dragging their parents limp forms. It was the families torn apart, lives lost, homes reduced to rubble. It was the horror of seeing mechanical allies turn the tide in seconds. And it was the broken hero who lost everything.   
With each new city conquest, Ganon made itself stronger. It fed off of the malice. It used it to control its new allies for fear that they would make like their siblings and question all the suffering. It influenced each towards its worst. All-consuming hunger for water. Narcissism for fire. Hatred for thunder. Mindless beastality for wind.   
And the world erupted in guardian laser. 

But then something happened that hadn't happened before. A blight left its home. A hero battled himself instead of an enemy. A Yiga child changed. A shadow-girl wandered the world, influencing where she could, showing people to understand instead of fear.. A blight was welcomed. A hero was forgiven. 

So the question becomes, what happens now?


	2. The Hero Of Flames

The guardians had come in waves. Almost crawling on top of each other, they swarmed and tumbled and made for the bridge at the entrance to Zora like an incessant swarm.   
They were endless.  
But Zora was ready.   
The combined power of four blights, one prince, and a rather effective Yiga and Rito combination was enough to hold the bridge like iron. But the fact that the blights held the bridge wasn’t what was extraordinary. Waterblight alone probably could have done it. The spirit had weaved in and out of guardians, taking out most with a single touch. As soon as her watery form came into contact with the internal mechanics, they just dropped like deadweights, doing little more than getting in the way of the other guardians. By the end of the battle, she’d created a wall of dead guardians piled on top of each other that effectively blocked the attack of the few who still worked.   
No, that wasn’t extraordinary at all.  
Nor was the fact that the newly born Thunderblight jumped from guardian to guardian like a hyperactive child, overloading most every machine that she touched. Or the fact that, despite the situation, there were no Zora casualties. In fact, the only side that so much as took a serious hit were the guardians. Not that it was a very long fight, mind you, because the guardians just… shut down… after about an hour. None of that was extraordinary. 

Now, there was a small Zora child sitting and playing near the waterfall. Not in the line of danger, but with a direct line of sight to the battlefield. When the guardians started coming, the child’s parent had grabbed them, pulled them to their chest, and jumped into the water. With nothing but little fish-eyes poking up out of the deep, they didn’t see much. A bunch of scary, spider-like robots. People screaming. Massive gouts of fire, water, lighting, air. The child’s first instinct was to be terrified. More enemies. More bad guys. More chance of getting hurt.   
But then the spiders had started falling. Like dread, twisted angels plunging from grace, they fell. They fell into the water, piled up into a dead wall, broke into a million tiny pieces, melted. And the child walked through the clean, unbroken streets after... when everything was over. And they saw the prince smiling, laughing, talking happily to a boy with waves of smoke drifting off of him in lazy wisps. A being of pure air lifting up broken pieces of the bridge and putting them into a pile, freeing a Zora trapped underneath. A little child, just like them, but made of pure lightning.  
They should have been scared, the Zora child knew this. But instead, they extended a small, wet fish-hand to the smaller child, offering a toothy smile. They weren’t quite old enough to understand, but the child knew that these people… they’d had some hand in saving home.   
And slowly- reluctantly- the lightning-child offered a hand back, small and harmless sparks jumping between the two children’s hands. The Zora-child giggled, hugging the lightning-child. Hugging the polar opposite. A danger.  
And that…  
That was what was extraordinary. 

…

Pyro stretched. It had been a long recovery since he’d been stabbed, but this battle had felt good. Like a release. Getting to do something. Not to mention, it had gone pretty well, all things considered.   
“You okay?” Sidon asked, walking up to him with worry playing in his eyes. The prince still evidently hadn’t forgotten Pyro’s frequent brushes with injury.   
“For the fifteenth time, yes.” Pyro responded, “But I appreciate the concern.”   
Sidon smiled, pulling Pyro into a hug, “I’m glad.”   
They stayed like that for a few moments before drifting apart. Pyro turned his head sideways to see Kothia and Graves exchanging fistbumps. Both looked startlingly happy. Kothia especially had brightened since coming to Zora. Graves noticed him looking and waved him over enthusiastically. Pyro rolled his eyes playfully and came over, dragging Sidon by the hand.   
“How many, Kothia?” Graves asked, “HOW MANY?”   
Kothia sighed, but the sigh was less contemptuous than the last few thousand sighs that Graves had eked out of her.   
“Twenty-eight guardians!” Graves announced, “Fifty-four between the two of us! Rito-Yiga death squad for the win!”   
“We’re not calling ourselves that.” Kothia started definitively as Graves walked off to go brag to someone else.  
“I don’t think she’s listening anymore.” Pyro noted helpfully. 

Most of the rest of the day was dedicated to clean-up. Getting the dead guardian wall dismantled. Fixing up patches of the bridge that had been broken. Pyro spent most of it with either Graves or Kothia, or both. Sidon was occupied with various political matters following this attack and his siblings had been conscripted by various Zora to help. Waterblight could do a lot to help the Zora, especially those who’d been burned by guardian beams. Windblight was doing a lot of heavy lifting. Thunderblight, in true child fashion, had ended up plum tuckered out and fell asleep about an hour after the battle ended.   
He, on the other hand, couldn’t do too much in the way of repair work. Fire tended to be more detrimental than helpful in that department. So evening would find him soothing aching muscles in one of the pools surrounding the city. The water running over his legs was beginning to bother him less and less. It wasn’t that he’d been thrown at it (or misguidedly thrown himself at it) a lot recently. Rather, it was beginning to feel like home here, a place with so much water. Granted, he still was scared by large lakes. Waterfalls. But ponds, still water… it didn’t bother him as much as it used to.   
“Come on in!” Graves laughed, “The water’s fine.”  
“No.” he stated, “I’m really good.”  
The former Yiga scrunched her nose, “Suit yourself.”  
Pyro sighed, rolling his shoulders in an attempt to rid them of the tension he’d held in them during the battle.   
Graves paused, propping her elbows up on the side of the pond, “Can I get serious for a second?”  
Pyro feigned shock, “You can do that?”  
“Haha.” Graves laughed, “But honestly. I mean this battle… it was too easy. It seemed like a lot more than it was. Like it was supposed to be a final strike, but it pooped out. I keep feeling like something more is going to happen. That something more has to.”   
Pyro thought about this for a while, “You’re right. All of them just shutting down at the end like that… it wasn’t… it didn’t seem like how this would all end.”  
“No.” Graves paused for a second, “But I’m glad everyone is okay though. You’ve… you’ve really given me a place here. Thank you.”  
Pyro laughed, “Graves, you’re like my best friend. A very annoying best friend, but… you’re the first person who really tried to interact with me knowing who I was. That means something.”   
Graves opened her mouth to respond, but she never really got the chance. A sound like a loud bang echoed through the hills, bouncing off of the sheer shelves of rock and growing stronger with every second. Flashes of light danced sporadically on the grass behind Pyro, playing their glint into Graves’ eyes. And then, it seemed the light itself became form. Or the outline of one, at least. One that danced and fizzled in and out. It seemed as if it took great effort for the lights to even be here.   
“F-fire…” the creature gasped, “I-I it's good... see… here…”  
Pyro stood up, running over to the brightness, “Light? What are you doing here? I thought you were mad and…”  
Lightblight slumped into Pyro’s arms, “Ganon… it’s coming. N-not Calamity. But… it.” 

The siblings were gathered anxiously in the Zora infirmary within minutes. Lightblight lay on the bed, jumping in and out of visible form. The doctor was staring at the patient with a very confused and altogether lost look.   
“A lamp.” Waterblight was telling the doctor, “As much light as you can get him.”  
Pyro was pacing anxiously while Windblight rubbed small circles into his shoulders, trying to comfort his fiery little brother. Thunderblight had woken up and looked to be on the verge of crying. None were eager to lose another sibling. Not this soon. Not when they’d been together for thousands of years. One had been bad enough.  
“Flsh.” Thunderblight squeaked defiantly, jumping on Lightblight’s chest, “Flsh. FLSH!” Like a Roman candle, the child lit up with a crack of their namesake. A burst of light erupted from the child like a wave, but all of it seemed to be… pulled… towards Lightblight on the bed. The spirit stopped drifting in and out of sight, and settled into a dim- but perceivable- hue.   
“I-I he seems better?” The doctor stated as more of a question than an answer, “But rest. Definitely rest. Everybody needs rest, right?”  
“Yes. I think so.” Pyro commented, “It helped me... when…” he trailed off. 

Lightblight woke up a few hours later. Pyro hadn’t left his spot pacing in the corner. Clearly whatever his brother had to say, it was for him. He’d been sought out specifically, after all.   
“F-fire?” Light asked slowly, “Is… you?”  
Pyro rushed over to the bedside, nodding,   
Something appeared in Lightblight’s hands, and Pyro felt it pushed into his chest. “T-Take… you have to… help HIM… kill Ganon…” Light gasped.   
Pyro grabbed the object, looking at it quizzically. It was a crossbow, but Pyro didn’t see any arrows in sight. Strange- yet vaguely familiar- symbols were carved into the wood of the handle. “Well, how am I supposed to fire it without any arrows?”  
“Y-you won’t need… arrows.”   
Pyro’s eyes widened in horror, “You didn’t. I thought we talked about this. That you wouldn’t… Light, it’s probably going to kill you!”  
“We did.” Lightblight coughed, “But you didn’t talk about selling your soul to Ganon, so I figure we’re even. I-I you have… no idea… what’s coming.”  
Pyro looked down at the weapon in his hands. The one that was sapping his brother’s energy. The one that could kill him by simply existing. He felt a lingering dread in his heart. “It must be bad if you risked making Dawn’s Crossbow for this.” he closed his eyes, “You were never the hasty one. It was always me.”   
Light nodded, “W-we can destroy it… once Ganon is d-defeated.”   
Pyro looked at his brother sadly, “If you make it that long.”  
“T-then get a move on…” Lightblight told him, “My fate’s in your hands now. I sure hope you HAVE changed, brother.”  
Pyro looked helplessly at the sky, “What do I do?”   
“I think you already know.”

…

Pyro was halfway out of Zora before anyone caught up with him. But Graves, in pure Graves fashion, had told everyone within the span of one conversation what had happened.   
“You’re leaving again?” Sidon asked sadly from a perch on top of Inigo bridge.   
“I’ll be back.” Pyro replied.   
“From fighting Ganon?”   
Pyro spun, tears in his eyes, choking out in anguish, “You think I WANT to leave? My brother will die if I don’t do this.”   
“There must be another way.”  
Pyro strapped his faux Master Sword to his belt and threw Dawn’s Crossbow over his shoulder, “There isn’t. But, if it makes you feel any better, I won’t be going alone.”  
Sidon raised an eyebrow, “I don’t see anyone.”  
“I can call my siblings when the fight goes down. Plus, I’m heading straight to the canyons around Rito for some backup.”  
“Who’s there?” Sidon asked.   
“An old enemy. But we have… common interests.” Pyro told him, “And it’s not a who, but a what.”  
Sidon sighed, “Okay. I get that you have to do this… for your family. But just… come back okay? I’m sick of saying goodbye to people. I had to say goodbye to my sister like this. A-and you know what happened there. Just… I don’t want to lose you.”  
“I know.” Pyro said, “If there’s a way back- if there’s even a tiny sliver of a way back here to you, I’ll find it. I swear this.”   
“Okay.” Sidon said, “I’ll take that.”   
Pyro turned to leave, taking steps forwards and off into the uncertain distance.  
“Just… good luck.” the prince called, “And I love you.”

…

Pyro looked up at the sky. He was almost there, and that fact alone terrified him. He hoped that he’d be able to talk to the dragon before they decided to try and turn him to ash. He knew that possibility shouldn’t frighten him, but it did. Some days Thunderblight (the old one) had been the only one standing between him, this creature, and oblivion. But he was older now. And more experienced. Or at least he hoped that would be enough. He had to try, though. He was sick of charging into things himself and getting hurt. That had to change. He had people to look after. People who would miss him.   
He stood on the precipice, looking out over the canyon with narrowed eyes. He knew all he had to do was wait. Wait and try to calm the pounding within his chest. The dragon would find him. He closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. He could do this. He had to. 

“You sure have guts coming here.” an ancient and gravelly voice hissed. Pyro opened his eyes and came face to face with his childhood monster.   
“Hello Dinraal.” Pyro said tiredly, “I need your help.”   
The massive fire dragon laughed, its ethereal coils dancing in the air like ribbons as the rumbly joy made its way through the creature’s body. Juts of crystalline horns poked their way like small mountains out of the dragon’s back and head, glowing lazily a crimson rose colour. Serpentine and orange eyes glared at him maliciously from the small slits of space that they were allowed on the dragon’s head. Fire danced around Dinraal’s large body like the light danced upon the white-yellow scales that lined its huge form. Not many creatures could make Pyro’s hair stand on end in this world, but he was face to face with one of the ones that could. And, in his current form, Dinraal could probably just eat him if it wanted to. After the laughter subsided, it looked for a few moments as if it was going to do just that. But, instead, it just inched its large head closer, “You have gall coming here. Here. And asking ME for help. You should be giving me reasons not to kill you.”   
“Ganon is rising.” he managed to fire back through chattering teeth.  
“Ganon rose a long time ago, little one.” Dinraal hissed intimidatingly, “As I recall, you helped it.”   
“Not the Calamity.” Pyro managed, “The real deal. The malice. End all be all.”  
Dinraal paused, “Even if that is true, why do you know this before me? And what can you or me possibly do? Few weapons can hurt that thing, and as I recall, you possess none of them. Not the sword. Not the bow. No-“  
Pyro pulled Dawn’s Crossbow off of his back.  
Dinraal paused mid-sentence, and stopped for a few seconds before continuing, “Why should I trust you? You were aligned with it.”  
“That was a mistake.” Pyro shot back, “And if I had malice on me, you would have sensed it.”   
Dinraal rumbled from deep within its throat, “That is true. But you still haven’t answered how you know this before I do.”   
Pyro slammed the crossbow back on his back, “My brother. Light. The spirit of Hyrule Field. He was close enough to the castle that he sensed it, and made the crossbow. He’s given it to me.” Pyro paused as Dinraal nodded, and swallowed hard, hoping the next part wouldn’t get him murdered, “Now I don’t like you. Even before I was bitter, you weren’t kind. You seemed to enjoy tormenting me. You still do. And I know you don’t like me. But I don’t think either of us want to see the world more dissolved than it already is, and I have a family to protect.”  
Dinraal hissed angrily, “You dare speak to me like this?”  
“Yes!” Pyro yelled back, body quivering like grass in the immensity of the being before him, “When the malice comes, when it builds enough to appear, it will be immense. And I doubt anything on the ground alone will be able to defeat it. I sacrificed my ability to fly when I chose to shirk the Calamity. You still can. Plus, my magic has no chance of hurting you.” he winced as Dinraal moved closer, but didn’t stop talking “Now, you can either sit here and do… whatever it is you actually do… or you can get over whatever it is your problem with me is and make sure you still have a world to fly in tomorrow.” 

A few seconds passed in tense silence. Pyro staring, petrified, into one of Dinraal’s great eyes. Dinraal staring back, unblinking, unmoving, perhaps shocked, perhaps contemplating the best way to kill the impudent little blight.   
Then, as quickly as it came, Dinraal pulled back, so that it was hovering above Pyro’s head. “There’s a power to you yet.” the dragon commented, looking down on him, “You aren’t the child you once were, though you haven’t lost your rudeness.”   
“What?” Pyro squeaked.   
“I will help you. For all our sakes.” Dinraal told him slowly, a heaviness in its eyes, “But even with me aiding you, it will be a difficult fight. Especially without the Hero.”  
Pyro nodded slowly, putting in, “The Hero is alive. And awake. We’ve met. Or rather, I’ve met the end of his swordpoint. But I’m not sure where he is… or if he’ll help me, considering.”   
Dinraal pulled back, the heaviness ebbing, “Oh.” it rumbled contentedly, “Then my reservations are quelled.”  
Pyro looked annoyed, “Did you not hear anything I just told you? I don’t know where he is, what he’s doing, or if he would try to kill me or not.”  
Dinraal laughed, “You may be wiser, little one, but you have much to learn. A hero always finds a way.” The dragon’s eyes glinted, “You of all people should know this.”   
Pyro didn’t know what to make of the last statement, but pulled the Gale into his legs and jumped up, seeing Revali’s faint outline throwing him a sarcastic thumbs up before fading. Pyro landed between two of Dinraal’s great spikes and nodded to the dragon, who twined untwined and set off towards the hauntingly empty spires of Hyrule Castle, flames trailing behind them.  
The spark was set. It was time for the fire.


	3. The Heroes Of Ash

The battlements of Hyrule Castle were covered.  
The exploded bits of ravaged guardians, shut down the moment the Calamity died. The stones that were thrown with the blows, tearing into whatever lay below. Melting and burst goo from the Calamity's influence. And a Princess and her hero. Sitting on one of the highest balconies, looking out over the kingdom. 

“It looks nice.” Zelda managed, “Especially for being controlled for 150 years.”   
Link didn’t share her optimism, but he nodded, smiling.   
“I’m looking forwards to helping everyone rebuild.” she continued, “We can do it together.”  
Halflife was currently combing the libraries, searching for whatever bits of knowledge that she could find. The more he saw the two of them together, the more he realized how similar Zelda and Halflife were. And how much he cared for them both.  
It had been a long road getting here, but Zelda was alive. She shouldn’t be- he knew this- but she was anyway. Perhaps he was finally getting a break. Something. Maybe he could start putting the pieces together. 

And yet, there was still the unnaturally dark sky. And the sense of foreboding he hadn’t been able to shake. He’d even had the urge to go fetch his horse and bring her to the castle stable. In case they needed to make a quick getaway. He wondered how the other kingdoms were faring, as well. The guardians shut down here, did that mean that they were shut down everywhere else? Had they even managed to survive that long? He could feel the familiar guilt settling in when Zelda nudged his shoulder.  
“Stop.” she said, “We won. Let’s celebrate it for at least a little while.”   
He nodded, pulling himself out of his head. Leaning his head on his best friend’s shoulder, he sighed. Maybe it was okay to be happy. Just for a little while. Not that he really knew how, but still. He could try. He had to. Without a mission, without the ‘hero’ title, without the Calamity, he felt purposeless. Burned out. No ‘divine mission’ to hold onto any longer. He was just tired. And very aware that his options were either to try… or to die.   
He wanted to try, though.  
“The sunset is nice.” he commented.   
“Yeah.” Zelda smiled, “Hopefully we’ll be able to see a few of these now, like this.”   
“That would be nice.”   
“It would.” 

…

Things were good. A day, a day more. Every day got easier. Cleaning up the castle, sorting the ledgers, watching Halflife shove a book in his face whenever she found something mildly intriguing. A soft laugh. His soft laugh. He’d forgotten what it sounded like. 

But destiny is a cruel mistress, and as this was happening, evil was building. Ganon could not accept surrender. It would not. It had to defeat these… these interlopers. Whatever it took. Even if it meant the risk of appearing in its most primal form.   
It built its strength. It was detected by none but the spirit of light, who fled to his brother (unbeknownst to Ganon). It merely smouldered, waiting for the chance to burst into flame.   
Zelda noticed the trees first. Around the field, they started to die. Wither. Leaves turned into black echoes, which turned into ash, which drifted to the ground and began to reform pools of energy. But… this wasn’t the Calamity. It was darker. Deeper. Like staring into infinity- or void.   
Link noticed the animals start to flee. Moving away from this grand, uninhabited space of the field. Those that did sometimes looked injured, or sick. Many died later, eyes white and empty as that space- the one in the middle of the field. A hauntingly empty thing. No trees. No grass. No life. Just the distinct, eerie feeling that something was coming. Like a wave, building in intensity.   
It scared him.   
Halflife said she could feel something. A crawling within her skin. Something calling her- some part that should have been dead. She seemed unsettled, agitated. The clouds darkened overhead. She claimed it felt like a weight, like something was… drawing… its energy from her. Its lost energy. Then, just as quickly as the feelings had come, they left. And Halflife felt fine.  
Maybe he’d been worrying too much. 

But then Zelda started to take a sudden downturn. Coughs of black bile. Bags under her eyes. She resembled more and more the shell she’d been when the Calamity had taken her over. He didn’t know what to do. Halflife has thrown herself into study, trying to figure out what was wrong. “If I can live with Calamity inside me” she’d rationalized, “Then maybe I can figure out how to make it so Mother can live too.”  
And he’d started to panic.   
Not again. He wouldn’t lose everything, he couldn’t lose her again. 

And that was when they woke up to the screaming. A sound like a thousand dying, tortured souls all at once. The field, ripping open from the inside out. Calamitous light drifting in through the windowpanes. Zelda, sitting on the balcony, saying, “It’s here.” 

He looked out, over the field. And couldn’t quite describe what he saw. His voice clammed in his throat. Ganon. No, it was impossible. He blinked. The huge, mountainous creature was still there. Shaped like a giant boar- or perhaps the twisted reflection of one. Tusks as large as the battlements they were standing in. Eyes littering its body, all focused on him. All looking at him. With pure, blind, and utter fury. Bursts of energy flowed off of its body like a stream. Hooves made of stones too black to be real. He felt sick just looking at the thing. But he couldn’t look away. Because the look in its eyes was a challenge.   
Come and get me, they said.   
“I knew I shouldn’t be here. I knew I shouldn’t have survived.” Zelda began ranting, the words spilling out, “I KNEW this wasn’t right. I knew it wouldn’t be that easy. But.. I thought maybe… for once… it would be… and…”  
Link couldn’t force words out his throat as Zelda kept babbling. Those eyes were holding his in a death grip.   
“Link?” Zelda asked, “Link, are you listening to me?” He couldn’t respond. She grabbed his chin and tore his eyes away, “Link? Link are you okay?”  
He shook his head, horror playing in his eyes. Terror. Fear. Hopelessness.  
She pulled him in, wrapping her shaking arms around his shoulders, “I’m here.”   
The look in his eyes demanded direction. He needed her to say something. To tell him what to do. And, perhaps she picked up on that because her next words were some semblance of a plan.   
Zelda looked up at him, “You brought your horse, didn’t you?”

A few moments later they were down in the stables, Zelda tying the harness, he wishing they didn’t have to leave. Wishing this wasn’t real. Halflife looking horrified. Zelda begging her to stay back. “Someone will have to defend the world if we can’t.” Him, moving mechanically and patting the horse on the neck, murmuring an apology for bringing the poor beast into this mess. Zelda, summoning her power like spears into her fingertips. Her body shuddering with every attempt.

At least we will be together, he thought, at least we’ll do this together. 

Zelda nodded to him and he pulled her onto the back of the steed that he barely remembered mounting. His arms under hers, holding her on the back of the beast as she slumped forwards. He could see her mouth moving, but didn’t hear anything.   
“Link,” she’d said, “Promise me. Promise it won’t be like before.”  
“Zelda,” he would have said back, “Promise me too.”   
But there was just the oppressive silence. The weight of the world. And all evidence of speech was silenced. 

…

The ride down the castle, through Castle Town, and onto the field felt like a death march. The beast was waiting. Sitting. Probably cleaning its horns, making sure they were nice and shiny before it ran through the two interlopers. As such, the two companions had a bit of time. Before everything. 

“This isn’t how I wanted it.” Zelda sighed, “I was so rude to you in the beginning, and then it was everything all at once and everyone’s expectations and… we didn’t get much time, did we?”   
He shook his head.  
Zelda continued, “It was so hard. Everyone wanted us to be so much, that we didn’t even get to be what we wanted to be. It was only duty, and do this, and silence, and what use is study anyway go use your power.”  
He nodded.  
“But… but I’m glad you were there through all that. I felt like you understood. Even if it hit you harder than me. And it was nice, when we could just travel. Free from everyone else. Do you remember when we used to sneak out of the palace to go and catalogue flowers? Well, I did. You just watched a little, probably mildly amused how excited I was getting about flowers, of all things. It was nice to have you there.”  
He hugged her a little.  
She smiled, “Those were the good times. Before everything did go sideways. I wonder if I did stop the studying then…” she trailed off, looking behind, “Link… Link, aren’t you going to say anything? I’m getting scared.”  
He opened his mouth and shut it again.   
“This might be our last chance to say something. Please… please, don’t you have anything?”  
In truth, there were a million words he wanted to say. I’ve missed you, Zelda. I don’t want to do this again. I was making progress. I was getting better. I wanted you to be here for that. Thanks for being there when no one else was. I’ve made so many mistakes. I’m sorry I wasn’t a better knight. I wish I could have more time, even though that’s the thing that I always wanted less of before.   
But, gazing into the eyes of the beast, waiting- just on the crest of the next hill- he realized there was only one thing he needed to say. “Zelda. Will you forgive me?”   
She looked back at him- eyes wide in shock- seeing the unshed tears at the corner of his eyes. “Only if you’ll forgive me too, once all this is over.”   
He didn’t have time to ask ‘for what?’  
Because that’s when it started.   
He wasn’t quite sure how a beast that large could get up that quickly, but it did. And- bellowing- threw pillars of energy in their direction. A torrent, large as he was tall. And ripping towards them with the speed of lightning. He barely managed to swerve before the energy ripped through the ground that they’d been upon only seconds ago. He could feel the heat and the… wrongness… of it across his cheek. He didn’t want to get within forty square kilometres of that thing. Every fibre in his body was telling him to go. Go. Go. And leave this all behind.   
But then he’d been even more of a failure that he already was.

“You’ll need to get me closer.” Zelda told him, “I can’t aim from this far away.”  
He didn’t respond verbally, but pushed the terrified horse closer, rubbing his hand into the creature’s neck. It’s okay, he tried to tell the beast, we’re all in this together. Even as more and more lances of energy came his direction. He had to muster up all his talent on horseback to even be able to dodge. And most of those were by a hair.   
Zelda nodded, and he stopped pushing closer, instead trying to circle the beast. For all it’s up-and-down maneuverability, it didn’t seem to be able to turn very quickly. This way, he hoped, they could gain access to some of the eyes. If they could blind the beast, then maybe they’d have a real chance. Not this fragmented empty husk of a thing that they were riding on now.  
Zelda pulled a spear of light into her fingertips, and he felt her shudder. Casting from her fingertips, it flew in an arc, Zelda pushing her eyes closed so she could guide it to its target. The creature bellowed as its eye exploded.  
“One down…” Zelda was panting, “Only 99 to go…” 

He was more focused on trying to make sure that they didn’t get incinerated. He ducked under Ganon’s belly (much to the horse’s displeasure), Zelda managing to hit a couple more eyes while they were there. As they ducked out of the other side, Ganon rocked angrily, trying to stomp them.   
He pushed up the battlefield, riding as if his life depended on it. A lance of energy behind, he riding in front. At the last second he jerked the reins to the side, Zelda hitting one of his arms as he did so. She looked shaken, but nodded in encouragement.   
He pivoted the horse back for another pass. They were standing now, the two of them on the horse, facing Ganon. Those huge tusks. Eyes deep, inky, and mutated gold. The huge immensity of it, of the task. He was uncomfortably warm already. The horse looked scorched. A couple steps from exhaustion. And Ganon looked barely scratched. Not scared. Merely amused. It shook its hide, raising grant hooves and slamming into the ground, sending an earthquake in their direction. He rode towards it, trusting the steed to jump over pieces of fragmented earth. Another pass underneath the belly. A couple more eyes. Zelda, with her power summoned, hair flying, felling the beast one by one. By one. By one. He could see the gold in her eyes, the stored up goddess power she’d never used. It was ready now. Perhaps just waiting for this moment.   
Maybe, he thought, maybe we can do this. I couldn’t defeat him alone, but now…?   
He continued riding, pulling behind Ganon as it rose up to crash to earth once more. 

And then he saw it. Only a hint of it, really. A pupil, for but a second. Right on top of the back. Zelda turned back, and he saw she had seen it too. There was no way they could hit that. On the top. They couldn’t fly, and Zelda was banged up as it was. Not that Ganon would have let anyone climb it. Anyone who tried would probably be incinerated in seconds.  
“Zelda…” he gasped, looking for something, some hope, some reassurance, “What do we do?”  
Zelda looked sadly back at him, “We do… what we can. And then hope that someone else will do what they can.”   
He swallowed hard. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear. Zelda was the optimistic one. He wanted to hear that it was okay. But the burning heat running by them every few seconds, the gradual slumping of Zelda’s body against the horse’s mane, the virtual non-movement by Ganon… they spoke to him of the truth.   
He would fail. Like he’d always had. She would fail. Like she’d been afraid she would.   
There was no way they were going to win. Everything seemed so hopeless. They couldn’t do this.

At least, not alone. And the thing about smoke, the thing about calamity, about energy… it clouds your vision. Blanks out the world around. So you don’t notice anything but the impossible odds in front of you. You don’t notice the embers. And you don’t notice the weaving spines of the dragon on the horizon.


	4. The Fire

Ganon was winning. With each push of Link’s feet on the spurs, with each shuddering spear thrown from Zelda’s fingertips, it was winning. It had calculated everything. Isolate the hero. Push him away from any who could help him. Have him ostracized from the blights. From the Zora. From any others. It knew that if it took Zelda’s body, he’d go anywhere that Ganon told him to. And not worry about making friends along the way. 

Ganon had missed one thing. 

There’s a power to family. To connection. One Zelda, Link, and Halflife had. And one that the blight siblings had as well. And Ganon messed with that connection. Drove them apart. Used their anger. Pyro didn’t particularly like Link (getting stabbed by someone usually birthed that opinion) but there was one person he hated more. Someone more directly responsible. And someone who had to die quickly so his brother Lightblight could survive.  
Ganon. 

…

The bursts were getting closer, Link could feel it. His hair on one side of his face had been largely singed off by the bursts of energy. The horse was beginning to look less terrified and more exhausted. And Ganon didn’t look all that much worse for wear. He was scared. Terrified. Hopeless. Lost. But he didn’t know what else to do other than to keep urging the horse on, keep drifting in and out so Zelda could hit more of Ganon’s eyes. It didn’t make him feel all that much better, but it did make him feel a little less helpless. He would die fighting. He wouldn’t let the world down again. 

As such, he was wholly focused on the grass in front of him, the horse beneath him, that he didn’t even see it. Ganon didn’t either. Dinraal had come in from the side, where Ganon’s eyes had largely been destroyed. So neither Ganon nor Link saw the dragon. And neither saw the rider; smoking, burning fury in his eyes. He cocked Dawn’s Crossbow, placing it on his shoulder, finger on the trigger. “This one’s for Thunder.” Pyro growled. 

And then Ganon screamed. A bright flash of light lanced deep into its hide. Link stopped, turning his horse back around. Reflected in hopeless eyes was the portrait of Ganon throwing its head back, a dragon dancing around it. Of Pyro holding the smoking crossbow. And the bright, bleeding gash of light that was embedded in Ganon’s hide, now flashing its brightness back into his irises.   
Dinraal reared its head, blasting fire so hot it was practically white into Ganon’s injured hide, causing the beast to screech more as the fire crawled into all the lances, all the injured eyes, all the small wounds that he and Zelda had made. The fire pushed its way in, leaving a huge burn along almost the entire side of Ganon’s hide. And the light danced across Link’s eyes once more. Zelda gasped, turning back and smiling towards him. 

He pulled an apple out of his bag, offering it to his mount, “Come on girl, just a little more now.” he looked back up, smiling, tears of joy at the corners of his eyes, “We can do this.” And for once, he actually believed himself. 

Ganon kept screaming, but it turned from a keening wail of pain to a summoning. The moon turned an iron red, and monsters pushed their way out of the dirt, came out of the broken trees, began to move towards their master.  
Link’s newborn hope fluttered. They couldn’t defeat all of these… things. Not while they were focused on the giant creature in front of them.  
Pyro, on the other hand, was close to laughing, “Oh, you’re funny. And predictable. The thing about being your unwitting puppet for a few hundred years… I know how you work. And I’m not stupid enough to come alone. That’s what you want. You wanted us to be alone. Anyone who opposes you to be alone. But I’ve never been alone.” 

It started with the blights.  
Nine of them, from wind and water; fire and earth; jungle and leaf; thunder and light; frost of snow-capped mountains.   
It started with the blights, and it will end with them. Today. 

Pyro had promised to not come alone. Said to Sidon that he could call his family when the time came. And so he did- well, eight of them at least (Light was still back at Zora, exhausted from powering the crossbow).   
And so they came. The ground itself swallowed up the oncoming hordes. Waves came from absolutely nowhere to sweep them away. A spontaneous tornado ripped them from the ground, dropping them onto a series of ice spikes. The trees came alive again- and with all manner of poisonous jungle creatures who jumped and attacked and mauled anyone who had the bad idea of crossing their path. Thunder lanced from iron weapon to iron weapon. They were the elements themselves- pure spirits of the world. And they were angry.   
Frost was there too. She smiled, throwing Link a thumbs up as she sent a flurry of ice in the direction of some rather unfortunate Moblins. “We got this!” She screamed at him, “Go get that giant, ugly, pig thing!” 

Link nodded, pushing towards the monster. Ganon was still screeching, not sure whether to focus on the hero in front of it, the dragon on the side, or the rather pesky Fireblight who seemed to be able to jump around in the air with the ease of a bird.   
I’m not alone, Link thought, I was never alone. I just let myself feel that way.   
He pulled a hand off the reins, nodding to his unseen companion. His fingers snapped. And the sky lit up with lightning. Urbosa smiled her familiar smile. And he rode, keeping Zelda up straight in front of him. 

Meanwhile, Pyro was being quite the annoyance to Ganon. Between him, Dinraal, and the crossbow they’d managed to widen almost all the gashes Zelda had left for them. He matched Ganon’s bursts of energy with his own, raw, fiery energy. He was breathing smoke now, but it felt natural. Not the Calamitous stuff he’d channeled before. Just him. He was free now. And he could be forever.   
Ganon turned down to send blasts of energy towards the horseman below, and Pyro pulled the crossbow off his back and sent a lance towards the creature as if to say ‘Hey, I’m still here.’ Distracted by that, Ganon would turn its neck back, opening up a previously-unseen eye which Zelda would quickly take advantage of. With every new gash, Dinraal could blast more white-hot flames into the creature.   
And the monsters Ganon has summoned? The blights were taking them handily, wave after wave repelled with waves and strikes and energy of their own. Ganon was the one alone now, the one isolated. And its energy- its shell- was cracking. 

Pyro landed on the ground, missing Dinraal’s waving curls for once. His dichromatic eyes- blue and red- locked onto Link’s, whose mouth opened in shock. They stayed like this- eyes locked- for a second before Pyro summoned the Gale and shot up, back onto Dinraal, to avoid one of Ganon’s blasts.  
“Y-you know him?” Zelda asked, looking very out of it.  
“Yes.” Link admitted, “But I didn’t think he’d come. Especially not to help me, of all people.”   
“H-he is.. helping?” Zelda asked, trying to keep her very heavy eyelids open.   
Link looked up as another blast from the crossbow threw Ganon off, and he didn’t even have to dodge the oncoming energy. “Yes.” he stated definitively, “He is.” 

And it was back to riding. Running, the wind in what remained of his hair. Together, with his best friend, her soft yet determined smiled encouraging him and edging him on. Urbosa was here. Revali probably was too, if all the air-jumping the blight was doing was any indication. Halflife, waiting for him to come home. The Rito, who would need his help once this was all over.   
He was staring down the sightine, ready for this all to end. Ready to do this- the right way this time. Not bearing everything on his own shoulders, but… together. 

Pyro, too, was staring down the sightline. He cringed at every firing of the crossbow, hoping it would be enough. He fought for his brother’s life. And for a promise he’d made to come home. He was making sure there’d be a home to come back too.   
Ganon was playing with their lives, while this was just a trivial thing for the creature. A passion project, so to speak. But they, on the other hand, had so much to fight for. And it had nothing. It was the one truly alone.

“The eyes on top!” Zelda whispered to him suddenly, “Tell them… tell… to get the eyes… there.”  
Link screamed her message to the keeling wind above.   
Dinraal looked amused, “The small princess wants us to hit the eyes, blight-child.”  
Pyro dodged a blast of energy, “Trying to not die here, thanks!” he sighed, looking down. His eyes narrowed as he saw Ganon’s pupil staring back at him, “Oh. That’s how he’s keeping track of all of us at once, isn’t it?”   
Dinraal nodded.  
“So I’d best be taking care of that, shouldn’t I?”  
Dinraal nodded, weaving to avoid a blast.   
“Cool.” Pyro vaulted off of the dragon, bursting into the sky. He began to fall, and time seemed to slow down. Pull out the crossbow. Fire. One eye. Fire. Two. Fire. Fire. Fire. He touched down on Ganon’s hide for a second, before vaulting back up, burning the malice energy off of himself as he went. His body was scraped out of the sky by Dinraal’s talon, who returned the small form to its back.   
“Best be careful, little one.” Dinraal rumbled, “That was entirely too close. You look scorched, and not in a good way.”   
Pyro nodded, taking a few breaths, “I got the eyes on the back, though.”   
Dinraal rolled its eyes, letting the blight settle into a crease between its spine and body to rest for a few moments. It weaved, trying to hold Ganon’s attention as Zelda went for the final eye. The one on the centre of the beast’s head. The most dangerous.  
Ganon could barely see now. It sprouted out energy in every direction, just trying to hit something. It tried to turn its huge head around to see, to see something. Anything. Preferably the dragon who’d been assailing it. Then, out of the corner of its eye, it saw Link riding straight towards it. The head snapped back. Pyro’s eyes widened.  
“Wish me luck.” He whispered to Dinraal before vaulting straight in front of Ganon’s head. Summoning his reservoirs, all his strength, all the bits of his energy, he called his power to his fingertips. Him and Ganon, face to face. Link, trying desperately to stop underneath him, centimetres in front of the creature, about to be incinerated. Pyro blasted downwards, fire meeting malice, energies duelling as Link skidded to a stop before the inferno. The fire curled, blasted, turned purple, red, black. But it held. Kept the malice from coming in a death wave towards the horseman below. Pyro forced more flames out of himself, smoke curling in his vision. He could feel himself getting tired. Fire burning out. But if this worked, it wouldn’t matter. He intensified the heat, creating a wall that scorched the malice before it reached the hero. He didn’t want to save him, but it was their only chance. Of truly defeating Ganon. Dinraal sent a jet of fire along Ganon’s side, and Pyro collapsed as the stream of malice- and his own energy- gave out. Link rode past him, Zelda throwing a final spear. A glittering arc. A burst of light. And the eye burst like an overfilled dam.

...

Ganon was distracted. Blinded. Unfocused. Lance, spear, bursts of Urbosa’s lighting. It cut into the shell, this powerful entity it had built for this world. It couldn’t see to react, couldn’t locate. And it was running out of energy, so it couldn’t just toss it anywhere and hope to hit something. It regretted doing this. It regretted appearing like this… and yet it wasn’t sure what had happened. It simply couldn’t understand. The blight child. This blight child. Why? After everything that the hero had done, he was here. Helping someone who, by all rights, should be his greatest enemy. And with the dragon? He’d thought that the blights and the dragons were also mortal enemies, separated by ages and a difference in opinion.   
It was losing. But determined to defeat those who’d resigned it to… this. Suddenly, a horrible idea came to its head. It could defeat… him… the little hero who’d felled it time and time again, without defeating him. He just had to make sure that taking him out had… a cost. 

Dinraal sent another burst into Ganon’s flesh, and this time Ganon let it fester. Waiting until the blight-child on the ground fired another round of the crossbow. And let cracks spread over its shell, let the giant beast shatter, letting all the energy release. A vicious torrent, that the blights, the dragon, the horseman rushed to keep away from. Windblight swept Pyro up, pulling him away quickly. Link and Zelda rode like their lives depended on it. Dinraal moved faster than a dragon of that size had any right to.  
Ganon let all of itself, all the malice out. Until it was just a black core… of emptiness- evil- festering. Dinraal blasted this new form. Nothing. Even the crossbow didn’t make a dent. 

“Link.” Zelda gasped, “Take me to it.”  
“What?” He inquired, “What do you mean?”  
“The goddess energy. The only thing holy… pure enough to purge that.. thing. From our world.”  
Link paused, “Zelda, you look exhausted.”  
“I have to… to finish.” she managed, knowing he’d believe her, “Or else… it will just be… worse. Later. I’ll be fine.”  
Link nodded, pushing the horse closer to the pulsating black orb in front of them. As soon as they’d dismounted, the poor thing ran off. Probably terrified. And done with him. And probably also needing a good meal.   
Link nodded to Zelda, keeping her supported on him and she brought herself closer and closer to Ganon. Core Ganon. The truth, the evil. Now this small little thing. Unable to do anything anymore. Except fester. And try and build strength. They couldn’t let that happen.  
Zelda pushed off of him, moving towards the orb, “I do hope you forgive me, as you said you would.” She turned back for a moment, smiling sadly at his confused expression before turning back and putting both hands on Core Ganon. 

Pyro, at that moment, was begging Dinraal to burn the crossbow. “Please. It doesn’t work anymore. Zelda’s getting it. My brother… the energy has to go back to him.”  
“I’m tired as well, small one.” Dinraal coughed, resting scorched coils down on the ground in a rare moment of contact for a sky dragon.   
“I know! I know, but please.” Pyro gasped, “He needs to… it needs to…” He petered off, beginning to sob, “What’s the use? He’s probably already…”  
Frost drifted towards her brother, grabbing his face, “It’s okay. We’re all here.” She wrapped her arms around him, “I’ve got this.” Her hands went to the crossbow, covering it in ice. Pyro dropped it, and it shattered.  
His other siblings were there. All of them. Though, none other than Frost had bodies to hug him with. Instead, it was the soft kiss of wind, the dirt from the ground drifting around him, the vine that wrapped around his form. “I’ve missed you.” He sighed, “I’ve missed you all so-“  
At that moment, a wave of darkness enveloped them. A burst of divine light to match. It was gone as fast as it came. Pyro was confused, but knew one thing in his heart. Ganon was gone. Truly.   
He opened his mouth to talk to his family again, but was interrupted by a scream.

“ZELDA!”


	5. When The Dust Settles

Zelda had done it. What Link had done all those years before. He’d watched the energy surround her frail form, watched her repel and end it, and watched her fall to the ground. Watched her eyelids drift shut. Her body go limp on the empty dirt.

He’d screamed at first, but now he didn’t have much to say. Words weren’t coming. His voice was gone again. He was dimly aware of the sword ever-present at his side. But, right now, he was just numb. Ears ringing. Mouth held open in a gape of disbelief. Was this some sort of divine punishment? Showing him what it felt like?   
He stumbled over to her, wrapping her tarnished clothes in his arms, cradling her head. He could see her eyelids drifting from shut to slightly- even so slightly- open. But her breaths were getting shallower.   
This was even worse. Now he’d have to watch her slip away.   
His arms holding her limp body. 

Pyro had turned- naturally- when the scream had echoed. He took a few steps towards the crumpled warrior, waiting for the smoke and energy to clear so he could trust his vision. He was afraid of getting too close, after what had happened during their last encounter. He wanted to hate this man. He told himself he did. Called back the memory of his sister’s- Thunder’s- guts spilling over his fingertips. Remembered the crushing pain. The horror. What Graves had seen when she walked in to see him staring blankly and emptily into open air, in complete disbelief. Still covered in Thunder's body.  
But when the air cleared, and the smoke was gone, and the malice had faded away, he couldn’t. Couldn’t hold on to that. Partially because of where it had led him before.   
But mostly because the horrified, empty face plastered on the hero cradling his broken princess was the exact same expression that he’d worn when he’d watched his sister die. 

Link looked up, eyes hollow. Pyro was standing over him now, dichromatic eyes meeting Link’s. Pyro’s smoking fingertips. Hand on the sword at his belt. Eyes narrowed, the blue one looking like a guardian laser poised to kill. His brown skin. His black-tipped golden hair tilted down. He was looking down on Link. And he had every right to. Link felt the pain. Felt the judgement. He’d tried to kill this man. And for what?   
Link looked down too- yet his drop was due to shame, not practicality- tilting his head. His hands went to his hip and Pyro flinched, but Link unclipped his sword belt and let it fall to the ground. 

It occurred to Pyro that Link was giving the blight permission to kill him. Perhaps he even wanted it to happen.   
Pyro pulled out his sword, looking at his reflection in the blade. He examined it thoroughly. He’d spent his whole life hating. Hating the Goron’s for being ungrateful. And what had he done as a result? Ripped the mountain apart. Set the hate in stone by giving everyone reasons to justify it. Killed a Champion. His mind went to Daruk’s ghost. He’d hated Link for killing his sister, but what had he done? What had he done first?  
It was all this ...bitterness. They’d made their own bed, and Ganon had just used it. Used their simmering feelings to turn them against the people who shirked them. And then the blights made the bitterness, in others. The people spread it to the Sheika, forcing them to give up their technology or die. The Yiga spread it further. And where would it all end? Pyro knew that the Rito still revered the hero. If he did this, they’d hate him. Hate the Zora. His friends would be at the receiving end. And then what? A new war, a new Ganon? 

He looked back to Link. He didn’t look so powerful now. He looked broken. Lost. Empty. He wasn’t even thinking of all that Pyro had done to him. To Hyrule. He was only focused on what he’d done. Hyper focused even. Pyro didn’t particularly understand it. He seemed… messed up. 

Pyro was tired. Sick of this. Sick of being alone, of the pain of losing, of Ganon, of everything. He wanted it to stop. Here. Now.   
He threw his sword to the side. 

“Is she still alive?” 

Link’s eyes turned back to Pyro, this time in shock. He nodded slowly, but sadly. Her chest was barely moving up and down now. He didn’t want to lose the last thing he had. His insides felt ripped inside out. He’d tried so hard. For so long. And what had it been for? For him to fail, again and again? To love everyone he’d ever loved? For this? “But not for long.” he managed, the words he choked out echoing his death sentence.  
Pyro looked at Zelda, looked at Link, looked back at Zelda. He took a long pause. Link felt worse with every second. There was nothing. He’d never catch a break. He’d never be worth enough to catch a break. He deserved this. He..  
“We have a Shrine Of Resurrection, don't we?” Pyro interrupted. 

Link looked up, the spiral he was going down suddenly dissipating into another moment of pure shock. He felt a “What?” jump out of his throat. He looked down at Zelda. He must have looked like this when the Sheika had found his prone body and taken him to that place. Could Zelda be healed too? “But…” he asked, hoping for hope, for an answer, for the break he so desperately needed, “How will we get there in time?”  
Pyro shrugged, uncertain in this situation, uncertain in how easily Link had grabbed onto ‘we’, but still wanting to change the narrative. Plus, Zelda didn’t deserve this. And she’d saved them all. “Well, if you step back I think Windblight can transport her pretty quickly. With, you know, control of air and all.”  
Windblight materialized next to Pyro, nodding. Link stepped backwards. Surrendering. Trusting. Frost had been good to him, and if Pyro had survived the Master Sword he must be good too. Zelda’s body drifted into air and in a few moments was out of sight. He watched it leave, feeling the cold drift around him.   
Frost stepped over, mouthing a ‘thank you’ to her fiery younger brother. She wrapped her arms around Link, holding him tightly as he sobbed into the fur of her shawl. Pyro moved off to the side to give them space and went to talk with his other siblings, picking up the false master sword and putting it back in its sheath.   
Link just crumpled into Frost and let it all out. Shook. Sobbed, largely silently. Let the tears run down his face and onto her shawl and the ground. Let the shock, the pain, bleed out. Told himself Zelda would be okay. For real this time.   
And Halflife would be here soon, wouldn’t she? She must have sensed Ganon’s demise, since she bears some of his energy. She’d be here soon. And that would be enough.   
After what seemed like an eternity, he stopped, breathing hard. Frost released her tight hug and ran fingers in circles over his shoulder blades. He probably looked like a mess. Burnt hair. Scratched. Tear-stained. But he felt… better than he’d had in a long time. 

The sword was still on the ground, and he was happy to leave it there. He would return it to the pedestal later. But now he felt strangely free. Strangely hopeful. Strangely unburdened. It was over. And he was okay. 

Footsteps clued him into someone’s approach. He shuffled around to find the fire-child approaching him.  
“You seem less… well… completely a mess.” Pyro commented, moving to stand beside his form on the ground.  
“Yeah.” he sighed. He paused, looking up into the slightly scared eyes of the blight above him. He didn’t understand why he’d been so easily forgiven by someone who he’d done so much too when even the Captain wouldn’t so much as consider forgiveness for much less. He was confused. And so he took a breath, asking the question he so desperately wanted answered, “Why?”  
Pyro took a long time to answer, “I- I just… you killed my sister. And tried to kill me. Nothing can change that. But as much as I’d like to think I’m better, I’m not. I was Ganon’s puppet too. And I killed your friend. But… I don’t want anybody else to die. This is stupid. And I’m tired of it. Let’s just call the killing revenge garbage equal and stop. For everyone’s sake.”  
Link nodded, “Fine by me.”  
Pyro extended a hand downwards to the hero. Link looked up, seeing the extended palm. The symbols wrapping around the Blight’s arm, marking him as such. He reached up his hand to match, letting his former enemy pull him off of the ground.

The two of them were standing side by side now. Looking out over the broken landscape. Guardians that needed disassembling. Ground cracked and fractured. Trees broken, grass torched. But there was still so much here, Link could see that now. And Pyro, for the first time, could look out onto the land, onto the people, without fury. He’d closed his eyes, seen the light, and decided it wasn’t worth it anymore. Letting Ganon be defeated also meant letting Ganon’s work turn to ash. All the divisions he’d tried to create. And building anew.  
“So, hero.” Pyro asked, “Where do we start?”


	6. Moving On Or Epilogue

10 Years Later

...

“Come on!” Link laughed, “We’re almost there. No time to give up now.”  
Zelda looked up at him, glaring, “I woke up a little under a week ago. We left New Kakariko three days ago. Give me a break.”  
Link shrugged, “Alright, alright. But we have to be there by dark. The Zora are expecting us.”  
Zelda sighed, heaving herself up. It had been disorienting to wake up, surrounded by fluid, only a Sheika slate on a pedestal to guide her. But it hadn’t been as long as Link’s sleep- after all- Ganon wasn’t there to try and slow down the process. And Halflife had been tinkering with the systems, making sure they returned to their original efficiency. It had worked very well. 

Halflife would be meeting them at Zora City. She’d been busy there, helping an old Zora professor restore some murals along the path they’d been taking. She could do that now, which made her happier than anything. Pyro had been able to teach her how to use a Hylian body to give herself form, and she’d been making the most of every moment she spent with hands and feet.  
Link waved at her, gesturing over the crest of the hill towards the glittering blue bridge that spanned the gap between the land and the town. She could see a change in him. He was smiling more often, seemed more… purposeful... in how he moved. Perhaps it was the fact he’d been rebuilding the Hylian cities of Hyrule from the ground up, and that had given him something. Perhaps it was seeing others, the refugees, joy. Seeing them come back from being lost, alone, broken, to a completely new place that he’d help build. Or perhaps it was this ‘new family’ he’d been so eager for her to meet.  
Either way, she pushed over the crest of the next hill to find out.

Link was ahead of her, and when the Zora guards saw him they looked nervous.  
“Weapons, sir.” the one on the left commented, “You know the arrangement.”  
Link rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, pulling out a normal sword, hunting knife, his bow, arrows, and wood axe out of various pouches and sheaths and setting them on the table.  
Zelda ran up behind him, asking, “What’s that about?”  
“Hello, Princess. It’s wonderful to have you back.” the guard on the right smiled, demeanour changing as he saw her, “It’s part of his arrangement to access the city. He’s required to be weapon-free considering… um… previous events.”  
Link nodded, “It’s fair, honestly. I’m surprised they even let me in at all. Now come on, the others are waiting!” 

…

When Zelda walked into the dwelling situated on the third level of the city, she was immediately tackle-hugged.  
“Mother!” Halflife smiled, “You’re alright! It’s so good to see you, and I’ve found so many cool books and stories did you know that-“  
“Halflife, you might want to take it a bit slower…” Kothia smiled, “She looks shell-shocked.”  
Zelda was shocked. Sitting in the room was, by all accounts, an odd collection of people. Kothia, who’d spoken, a Rito bowwoman. Someone dressed in what looked like Yiga garb. Prince Sidon (who’d grown so much! He’d only been a small fish when she’d last saw him…) sitting in the corner, flanked by the boy she’d remembered from the fight with Ganon. Halflife still hugging fiercely- hanging off her- now with the form of a woman with deep, beautiful brown skin. A woman with grey hair that she also remembered from the battle (she’d thought she remembered Link calling her something… Winter? Snow? Frost?). A young Gerudo woman bundled in layers of blankets and complaining of the cold under her breath.  
“Wow.” Zelda commented, “I missed a lot, didn’t I?” 

“Yup!” Graves commented, “Like my discovery of how INCREDIBLE swift carrots taste with monster extract!”  
Kothia facepalmed, “Is that really the most relevant thing?”  
“I’m still not sold on that.” Frost added, “I’ll stick with my nice, hearty, oat cakes thank you.”  
“If you don’t add spice, it isn’t worth tasting.” Riju interjected, “Dishes need to have FLAVOUR.”  
“I can add spices to my oat cakes?” Frost offered, a strange and almost dreamy look in her eyes.  
Link cast Frost a confused sideways glance, interjecting, “Well, I think that if a dish fills your belly, then it fills your belly.”  
“You know what tastes good with spices?” Halflife commented, “Fish!”  
Sidon looked unimpressed.  
Halflife noticed, eyes widening as she realized and began to stammer, “Oh wait, no, I didn’t mean, please understand I didn’t mean any offence…”  
“If you eat my husband… we are going to have problems Halflife.” Pyro shot back, raising an eyebrow. Sidon smiled and wrapped his hand around the blight’s. They’d gotten married a year or two ago, when Sidon had worked up the courage to ask his father, who’d been surprisingly unsurprised.  
Zelda seemed surprised, “Um… congratulations? Sorry I couldn’t make it but…”  
Sidon smiled, “I understand. And there will be plenty of time to catch up, don’t worry. For now, you look like you need some food. And this discussion has only made me hungry. Shall we eat?” 

Everyone nodded, eagerly taking a seat at the already-set table and beginning to dig in. Link and Pyro were seated as far away as possible, she noticed. And everyone had suddenly slipped into a series of conversations and side-conversations. Zelda looked down at her plate and the fork in her hand, feeling strangely out of place in all the banter.  
“It’s alright, mother!” Halflife smiled, sitting next to her, “I have plenty to tell you. And you’ll get used to it after awhile.”  
“It’s just a lot.” Zelda smiled sadly, “Between Ganon and almost dying… I missed a lot. And I don’t know how to get caught up. Or if I can.”  
Graves slipped into the other chair next to Zelda, winking, “You’ll be fine. Nobody else knows what’s happening either.”  
“Somehow that’s even less comforting.” Zelda noted.  
Graves shoved a spoonful of food into her mouth, “Well, quick summary. Me and Kothia are bros, but we kind of hate each other too and it’s very entertaining. Pyro’s my best friend, and- well, you already know about him and Sidon. Kothia and Riju like talking battle strategy and dorky stuff and they train together. Pyro and Frost are siblings. Frost likes Riju and everyone knows it except Riju. Frost is also Link’s, like second-best friend… after you. Halflife bugs everyone with rants about whatever she feels like ranting about, but we all don’t entirely hate it and I’d say she’s bros with everyone, whether they like it or not. I think Sidon listens to her the most tho. Link kind of drifts between groups. Sometimes he’s off with Riju and Kothia training, sometimes we cause chaos, sometimes he chills with Frost and Pyro. Etc. And yeah.”  
Zelda blinked, “That… that’s a lot. How am I supposed to fit in with all of those connections?”  
Halflife shrugged, bumping her mother’s shoulder, “You’ll find your place, don’t worry. For now, do you have time to hear about my latest project?”  
Zelda’s eyes lit up with the unique gleam of research and science, “Yes! And I have so many ideas!”  
“Aaaaaannnd I’m out.” Graves commented, picking up her plate and moving seats, “Too many braincells at that end of the table for me.”  
Link shuffled over, taking Graves’ place. “It really is nice to have you back, Zelda.” he whispered. 

The rest of the night passed in a blur. Zelda got engaged in a heated- but fun- debate with Sidon and Riju over… well, she couldn’t really remember what it was anymore. Talked research with Halflife and planned at least fifteen new projects. Played cards with Pyro, Frost, and Kothia. Attempted to avoid being on the butt end of one of Grave’s jokes. But by the end of the night, it was just her in the garden around the city, feet drifting lazily in a pond of warm water. She was enjoying the long-forgotten feeling of the grass on her palms, the water coursing over her feet, the cool night air tickling her arms.  
“Hey Zelda.” Link commented, “I thought I’d find you here.”  
“It’s a nice spot, isn’t it?” she asked.  
“That it is.” Link sat next to her, “Are you okay, though? Just after… after all that happened?”  
“Not fully.” She admitted, “But if these idiots can crack your thick skull, then I’ll be fine.” she smiled at him, “You seem much better.”  
For the first time she could remember, Link smiled back. Really smiled. “Yeah.” he told her, “I am.” 

…

The Ceremony was set for tomorrow morning. Pyro sat facing the sky, looking up at the stars.  
“It’s late.” Sidon stated, coming out to stand over him, “You should get some sleep.”  
Pyro grabbed his husband’s hand and tugged it, “Just sit for a second. Look.”  
He did.  
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Pyro asked.  
“Yes.” Sidon admitted, “But are you talking about you or the stars?”  
Pyro laughed, “How about both?”  
They sat for a few moments, easy banter giving way to silence. But not the silence of aloneness, or isolation, but the deep kind that you share with someone you know well enough to not need words with. 

“Okay, I’ll go get that sleep you’ve been bugging me about.” Pyro sighed, “I guess I do need it now.”  
Sidon smiled triumphantly, “Good! Graves was looking for you and I didn’t want her to find you because I’m pretty sure she’s caused the guards enough stress already.”  
Pyro’s eyes glinted mischievously, “Graves was looking for me, you say?”  
Sidon sighed, “Please, just peace and quiet. One night. That’s all I ask.”  
Pyro nodded, “Of course, of course. I just had to make you nervous for a second there. I’ll go to bed. Tomorrow is a big day, after all.”  
“That it is.” Sidon echoed, “That it is.”

…

The morning came with the chirping of birds. That and the ceaseless pattering of rain.  
“Wonderful.” Zelda commented, “How am I supposed to read from the official scrolls in this?”  
“You could not?” Pyro ventured after learning that the Ceremony might take a couple of hours.  
Zelda shrugged, “It’s just as well. I have most of it memorized anyway.” 

They met in a circle. Pyro. Sidon. Riju. Kothia. Link and Zelda in the middle. The others, as well as various guests in the audience. All the blights were there now, Lightblight holding the Thunder-child in a death grip and as far away from the Zora as possible. He smiled at Pyro, still weak, but alive. And that was what truly mattered.

“We are here today to begin a new age. Strong together and united, we swear to stand against not just Ganon, but any creatures like it.” Zelda began, “Today, we will crown our new Champions. They may not have Divine Beasts, but they- and everyone seated here- have strength of spirit. And we are more for all of them. So let us begin.”

Pyro.  
He stepped up to the dias, kneeling, letting Zelda tap her staff on both his shoulders. She presented him a blue belt, smiling. He looked behind her, and saw the outlines of the old Champions. Revali. Daruk, who looked surprised but smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Urbosa. Mipha, who also looked even more surprised... but joyful. He could change hearts, he knew it now. Show the people who the blights really were.

Kothia.  
She held her head- and bow high. Finally the recognition she was looking for, the chance. She’d worked so hard for this. To be able to protect her people, to help. To see the ghosts of the Champions- Revali, Teba- nod in respect. She’d done it. She could do it. All those doubts she’d had, the ones that had been cultivated by every time they’d told her ‘no’, they were all gone. She was here. She took the blue fabric and wound it around her bow. 

Sidon.  
He stepped up to the podium, bowing as low as he could (which turned out to be to Zelda’s level). She tapped her rod, handing him a blue necktie to replace his regular white one. He grabbed it, remembering his sister. The one who’d held this honour last. He wondered what she would think about many things he’d done. He wished he could just see her… once last time. Looking up, he thought he COULD see her… see her smile. And mouth the words ‘I’m proud of you’. 

Riju.  
She walked confidently up to the platform, waving to her people in attendance. Accepting the blue cloth, she promptly tied it around her waist. She felt authentic now. Like the ruler she’d been born to be. And she was ready for this, she knew it. She could feel Urbosa here- and perhaps a bit of her confidence. Though, it was Daruk’s gift she’d inherited. Strength, protection in the face of adversity. 

Zelda smiled, nodding to her chosen knight, and now her four new Champions. They could bleach Ganon’s stain from this world, she knew it. All of them together. Weapons held high, shoulders tall amid cheers from the audience.  
The old Champions smiled at her as she turned, nodding. They were at peace now. Ready to go. For they knew the world was in good hands.  
It was time to start anew.  
Begin again.  
Move forwards…  
Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers!  
> For all of you who got here, kudos. It’s been a long project...  
> That being said, thank you truly to all my readers for enjoying my stuff. This series was fun to write and a joy to share. After all, what’s a story for if not that?   
> For all of you who came along with me for this journey, thank you! I hope you enjoyed it reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! I appreciate all of you, your kind words, and hope you laughed at least once.  
> And, oh yeah, have an amazing day. :)


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